Page 34 of Buy Back My Love

Anika laughed. “Girl, go in there with your man.”

I rolled my eyes and hugged her before she headed back out to her Corolla. I watched her pull off, then hit the garage-door button on the wall and waited for it to close before going inside.

JB was halfway across the living room when he saw me. He stopped and looked me over from my new braids down to my shoes.

“Damn, ma.” He came closer. “Look at you. You look good as hell.”

Any other time, I probably would’ve eaten that shit up. Tonight, I wasn’t in the mood.

“Mhm. Thanks.”

He slowed down. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. My head hurt from these tight-ass braids.” I walked past him toward the bedroom. “I’m finna take some ibuprofen and get in the shower.”

“You want me to rub your head or something?”

“No, I’m good.” I kept walking and made it to my bedroom door before looking back at him. “Oh, and make sure you lock the front door when you leave tonight.”

He just stood there looking at me like he wasn’t sure he’d heard me right. I went into my room and locked the door behind me.

JB

Icould always tell when Lee was about to start her period. The week before, she’d be mean as hell to me. Then again, this time I hadn’t exactly given her a reason to be nice.

I knew my baby was mad because I left her last night, but going home to Hannah was part of the deal. Hannah knew Lee was coming home. She knew about the apartment, the Benz, and everything else I had been getting together for her. That didn’t mean she liked any of it. We had already had enough arguments over the years about Lee and where she fit into my life for me to know better than that.

Still, when it came time for Lee to get out, Hannah ain’t try to stop me from picking her up or doing what I felt like I needed to do for her. She asked me for one thing. After I got Lee settled, gave her everything I had waiting on her, and made sure she was straight, I needed to come back home to her and my kids that night.

At the time, I agreed. It ain’t seem like too much to ask. Then I actually had to leave Lee and that shit was harder than I expected.

So today, I lied to Hannah and told her one of my drivers had a family emergency and I had to cover his load. Truth was, I planned on spending the whole weekend with Lee. I was even thinking about getting us out the city for a couple days so I ain’t have to worry about Hannah seeing us together.

Crazy as hell when I thought about it. I was hiding my main bitch from my side bitch.

Shit with Hannah was never supposed to go as far as it did. When we first started fucking around, that was all it was supposed to be. Then she got pregnant with JJ, and somewhere between doctor’s appointments, feeling him kick, and watching her stomach get bigger with my son, shit changed.

I loved Hannah. I couldn’t lie about that. That was my woman, and them was my kids.

Still, I had been straight with her from the beginning about Lee. I wasn’t leaving Lee behind just because she was locked up, and I damn sure wasn’t gonna act like what she did for me didn’t matter. Hannah knew that. What she hadn’t expected was for years to pass, for us to build a whole family together, and for Lee to still have the same place in my life she had before she went in. That was where most of our problems came from.

Hannah wanted what we had to stop being something we kept inside the house. I understood why. She had my son, another baby on the way, and I came home to her every night. But too many people still rode hard for Lee, especially them girls from Love-Lee. Hannah had worked there before Lee went in, then bought the building after it was sold and opened her own shop in the same spot. If people found out she had been fucking Lee’s man and had two kids by me, half them women would’ve looked at her different. Some of them probably would’ve done a whole lot more than look, especially since the only bitches who ever really had a problem with Lee were the ones who lowkey wanted to fuck me anyway.

I pushed all that shit out my head and went into the kitchen for a butter knife. Lee really thought locking that bedroom door was gonna keep me out. I slid the knife into the lock, worked it around for a few seconds, and the door popped open.

The shower was still running, so I stretched out across her bed to wait. That’s when I noticed a phone sitting on the charger beside me.

I picked it up. “Damn, she got a phone already.”

I had planned on taking her to get one today, but by the time I got over here, her ass was gone. She’d been gone damn near all day, so I figured her and Anika must’ve handled it.

I tapped the screen and saw she already had a passcode on it. That shit ain’t sit right with me because what the fuck did she have to hide already?

I tried her birthday first, but that wasn’t it. Then I tried mine and got denied again. That pissed me off a little more than it probably should’ve, but fuck it. Me and Lee had never been the type to keep shit from each other, so I couldn’t help wondering what she had put on there that I wasn’t supposed to see.

I sat there thinking about what else she might’ve used. I ain’t know Anika’s birthday off the top of my head, and I knew damn well she hadn’t used her mama’s. Then another date crossed my mind.

I typed in our son’s birthday, and the phone unlocked. For a minute, I just sat there looking at the screen. Losing him had fucked both of us up, but we handled it different. Lee eventually found nails and had something to pour herself into. I went harder in the streets, moving more weight and stacking more money, telling myself I was doing it for us and whatever future we still had left.